Senior Lecturer
B.Sc. (Honors) (Colombo), Ph.D. (Washington State University, USA)
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Biosketch:
B.Sc. – University of Colombo/Sri Lanka/2004
Ph.D. – Washington State University/USA/2013
Postdoctoral scholar – University of Montreal, Canada, 2013-2014
Washington State University, USA, 2014-2015
Senior Research Scientist – Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology, 2015-2020
Research Interests
I am broadly interested in meeting the current challenges in drug discovery and drug delivery at the interface of organic synthesis and Nanotechnology. In addition to small molecular synthesis, I am also interested in small antimicrobial peptides, realizing their promise as potential therapeutics as well as their applications in plant science and agriculture.
Divisions
Organic Chemistry
Selected Publications
- Yasuri Amarasekara, Inoka C. Perera, Nuwanthi. P. Katuwavila, Ranga S. Jayakody Gehan A. J. Amaratunga, Laksiri Weerasinghe* “Evaluation of novel nanocomposites for enhanced anticancer activity of XLAsp-P2 peptide” J. Mol. Struct. (2022), 1257,132618.
- Erandika H Hemamali, Laksiri Weerasinghe, Hideaki Tanaka, Genji Kurisu, Inoka C Perera* “LcaR: a regulatory switch from Pseudomonas aeruginosa for bioengineering alkane degrading bacteria” “Biodegradation, (2022), 1-17.
- Katuwavila, N. P; Amarasekara, Y.; Jayaweera, V.; Gunasekara, C.; Perera, I. C.; Amaratunga, G. A. J.; Weerasinghe, L* “Graphene oxide based nanocomposite for sustained release of cephalexin’’ Pharmaceutical sci., (2020), 109, 1130-1135.
- Silva, R. T.; Dissanayake, R. K.; Mantilaka, M. M. M. G. P. G.; Wijesinghe, W.P.S.L.; Kaleel, S; Premachandra, T. N.; Weerasinghe, L.; , Silva, K. M.; Amaratunga, G. A. J. “Drug-loaded halloysite nanotubes reinforced electrospun alginate-based nanofibrous scaffolds with sustained antimicrobial protection’’ ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, (2018), 10(40), 33913-33922.
- Park, C-M.; Weerasinghe, L.; Day, J. J.; Fukuto, J. M.; Xian, M.* “Persulfides: Current Knowledge in Chemistry and Chemical Biology” BioSyst. (2015), 11, 1775.
- Biggs, T., Weerasinghe, L.; Park, C-M.; Xian, M.* “Phosphine Mediated Conjugation of S- Nitrosothiols and Aldehydes’’ Tetrahedron Lett. (2015), 56, 2741.
- Garner, P.*; Weerasinghe, L.; Van-Houten, I.; Hu, J. ‘‘A concise [C+NC+CC] Coupling-Enabled Synthesis of kaitocephalin’’ Chem.Commun. (2014) 50, 4908.
- Garner, P.*; Weerasinghe, L.; Youngs, W. J.; Wright, B.; Wilson, D.; Jacobs, D. ‘‘[C+NC+CC] Coupling-Enabled Synthesis of Influenza Neuraminidase Inhibitor A-315675 ’’ Org.Lett. (2012) 14, 1326.
- Ahmed, A. A.; Hamada, M.; Shinada, T.; Ohfune, Y.; Weerasinghe, L.; Garner, P.; Oswald, R. E.* “The Structure of (-)-Kaitocephalin Bound to the Ligand Binding Domain of the AMPA/Glutamate Receptor, GluA2” Biol. Chem. (2012) 287, 41007.
- Garner, P.*; Kaniskan, H. U.; Keyari, C. M.; Weerasinghe, L. “Asymmetric [C+NC+CC] Coupling Entry to the Natphthyridinomycin Natural Product Family”: Fomal synthesis of Cyanocycline A” Org. Chem. (2011) 76, 5283.
- Liyanage, W; Weerasinghe, L.; Strong, R. K.; Del Valle, J. R.*’’Synthesis of Carbapyochelins via Diastereoselective Azidation of 5-(Ethoxycarbonyl) methyl proline Derivatives’’ Org. Chem. (2008) 73, 7420.
Awards:
- President’s Award for Scientific Research – 2020
- ACS (Division of Organic Chemistry) Travel Award – 2013
Affiliations:
- American Chemical Society
- Member of the Council , Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, 2022
- Member of the committee, Section E2, Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, 2022
CONTACT INFORMATION
Telephone Number: +94 775401882
Web: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=N17QvoUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Email Address: laksiri@sjp.ac.lk